This invention relates to an automatic control system for a loading and unloading vehicle such as a fork lift truck.
The working of cargo or goods in a work area such as a factory or a warehouse has conventionally been carried out by conveying cargo or goods along stationary conveying means such as a conveyor belt and loading or unloading the cargo or goods by hand at a required place or be a loading and unloading machine fixedly provided at such place.
There is also known a loading and unloading system employed in an operatorless warehouse or factory according to which rows of racks are concentrated in a certain limited area cargo or goods are loaded on or unloaded from these racks by means of stack cranes which travel back and forth along respective rows of the racks. This system however has a drawback that the cargo or goods must be carried to and from the stack cranes by other transporting means. Besides, the concentrated provision of racks in one area imposes a limitation to the use of space in the warehouse or factory.